WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1917, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE. MEETING 01-' PARLIAMENT. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Jan. I. Of course. Mr, .Tames Allen's announcement that Parliament would not be summoned bofure the return of the party leaders to the Dominion surprised no one here. When Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward left for London it was semi-officially stated that they would be back by the end of .January at the latest, and that an -early session would be held in April oi Me - in order that one or both of them might attend the Imperial Conference then expected in August or September. The earlier date now fi.ved for the Conference has necessitated a change in their arrangements, ,-,nd probably they will not be here till the end of MaraJf jr the beginning of April, but in the altered circumstances there is no urgent, reason why Parliament should be called together before the usual time in June. It would be simply a waste of time and money to bring members to Wellington to haggle over trivialities while awaiting the arrival of the travellers with more important business for their consideration. EXPORT DUTIES There appears to be a very general disposition among the farmers of the North Island, or at any rate among those doing their ousiness with Wellington, to look less favorably upon export duties than they did at the beginning of the war. The butter-fat levy, •the requisitioning of meat and wool, and the negotiations for fixing the price of wheat have compelled them to revise their former attitude. They are beginning to realise that th' needs of the Empire may require fr them greater sacrifices than would ! olved in the payment of 3 per or .■ 4 per cent, upon such of their ■ ..ducts as they might send out of the country No doubt it was in recognition of this fact that the. Minister of Railways, when speaking at the opening of a cheese factory the other day, expressed himself as ready to .--.ceept an export tax as a means of keeping down the cost of living. Mr. Herrios is a convinced freetrader. but he sees that circumstances alter cases and that exceptional ills need exceptional treatnudit. REGULATING PRICES. The absence of the Acting Minister of Industries and Commerce in Gisborne has not prevented good progress being made with the scheme lie has hi hand for regulating the prices of wheat, "our and bread and for placing the supply of meat intended for home consumption on a better footing. The members of the Board of Trade were in Auckland dealing with the meat, question when they were recalled to Wellington to assist Mr, Mac-Donald in his negotiations with the wheat-growers and millers, but they had practically completed their enquiries in the northern city and probably the* will have proposals to submit to the Minister in the eonr.-r of a few days, it still seems likely that the price of wheat, which must form the basis of the prices of flour and bread, will be fixed somewhere in the neighborhood of -'s a bushel and will be regarded as satisfactory by' a sufficient number ot fanners to ensure a good area of land being pot under crop this year. PEACE AND GOODWILL. Strike talk has been suspended on both sides during the holiday season and capital and labor, ..each after il.way, have been celebrating the timehonored festivals with rather more than the usual gusto, 'lhcre still, however, are a few timid souls about who take little trouble to disguise their fear that when harvest conies round something very dreadful will happen. The same lugubrious prediction, it will be remembered. was made last year and the year before, after the shearers and the waterside workers had failed to justify previous prophecies of a similar kind, and yet nothing occurred. Now there are no visible signs, not even a cloud as large as a man's hand, to indicate any impending trouble. The laboi leaders themselves say that if trouble comes at all it will come from the West Coast of the South Island, but at the moment the miners in this recognised stormcentre seem to be more bent upon enjoying their holidays in a legitimate way than upon disturbing the industrial peace on which their own well-being depends.